Fun at Chain Bookstores

So, I was in a certain chain bookstore to day. (I ain't naming names!) The universe must really be playing with me, because I did about five double-takes before confirming that, yes, I was looking at a Valentine's Day display that contained the following items:

1) The latest issue of a magazine that promised to make me "the sexiest brand on the market." Umm, no thanks - it's hard enough work just to be as sexy as I already am.

2) Lindt's chocolate. No problem there.

3) Sex Tips for Straight Women from Gay Men. Ok on this one too.

4) Why Men Love Bitches/Why Men Marry Bitches (guess they're a set) Interesting - they love *and* marry them, but for, like totally different reasons that demand two books!

5) The Feminine Mystique.

Yes, you knew this was headed somewhere: in between the chocolate and sex tips is a new edition of the feminist classic which helped catalyze one of the most important social movements of our century. I amused myself for the rest of the day trying to figure out if the higher-ups at said unnamed chain store were so clueless as to not recognize the hilarity of the pairing (feminine mystique . .. must be about how to be more feminine, right? to catch a man, duh) or if, as I liked to imagine, some mole was working on the inside, doing a kind of guerilla shelving. I'm in a good mood today, so I'm going with the later.

What does this have to do with Vibrant Gray? Well, not a lot. Except this: I was thinking about our mission statement in relation to conversations I've had with students over the years who don't understand what are wrong with cliches and generalizations. After all, if someone's said it a million times, it must be right, no? If some fancy pants weren't trying to make the world difficult, or make me see it as complex, or as gray, I could just live happily. And I tell them: I wish it were that way. I really wish you could tell people: do x, and you'll lose five pounds, and never age, and find true love. Self-help books thrive by telling people this, and people buy them, and then buy them again when they don't deliver, thinking this time it'll work. Even though, not being stupid, people know better, but desire is a powerful thing.

So, while a lot of teachers and writers do fetishize something called "complexity," and look for distinctions with out a difference, the real shades of gray, the real, simple fundamental questions like 'how can we be equal' are still out there. That means good writing is still out there too, no matter how many styles come and go, waiting to be written and read.